Monday, September 27, 2010

The original post was a fair and well presented example of citizen journalism by someone who did not merely repeat a press release but placed what was observed in the context of having reported on prior parades and absorbed over the last 10-20 years the painful lessons on how members of the Islamic community interact with the outside world. The hate and abuse here is not from the host or their post but from the Anonymous commentator who throws around words like whore idiot and bitch. Reading you makes me think that you have gender issues and suspect that your intent is to provoke an intemperate response that can be used to attack the blog.

The inflammatory signs and chants of prior years were gone and if that indicates that intolerance and the glorification of violence are being marginalized within the Islamic community then that is good news. If it indicates a tactical effort on the part of organizers caught by the controversy over the mosque near Ground Zero then there is less reason for relaxation. It is not wrong for inquiring minds to inquire.

Regarding the obscenity laced post with the story "I witnessed a former catholic-Muslim convert speaking peacefully and respecting a former Muslim-Christian convert Pakistani man" in my mailbox, was it deleted or blocked here? Given the history of how apostates are treated and the real cases we know of of people in hiding or being killed for "insulting the Prophet" it was probably a poor decision to hit the Publish button on that story when you are otherwise busy discrediting the argument for Islamic tolerance.

It is you choice everyday as to how you portray your community. If you seek to prove that the advocates of violence and intolerance in al-Qaeda and affiliated groups do not represent the values of Islam then it is your responsibility to demonstrate that. It was your choice as to whether you respectfully acknowledged the skepticism of observers when arguing for the sincerity of the new message or attacked the audience. Today Anonymous you have done a poor job of making that argument. You choose a tone that indicates hostility condescension arrogance and a desire to denigrate and control the opinions of others. That reinforces all the worst expectations that the less confrontational tone of the parade was presumably designed to allay.